The Vandals are perhaps best known for their
sack
of Rome in 455. Although they were
not notably more destructive than others, the high regard in which
later European cultures came to hold ancient Rome led to the
association of the name of the tribe with persons who cause
senseless destruction, particularly in diminution of aesthetic
appeal or destruction of objects that were completed with great
effort.

Origins and early history

Some archaeologists and
historians identify the Vandals with the Przeworsk
culture, and controversy surrounds potential connections
between the Vandals and another, possibly an admixture of Slavic and
Germanic
tribes, the Lugii (Lygier, Lugier
or Lygians), which is referred to as inhabiting the area by Roman
writers. Some academics believe that either Lugii was an earlier
name of the Vandals, or the Vandals were part of the Lugian
federation, which was composed of Germanic and Slavic tribes.
Jordanes
refers to Vandals as Gothic
(East Germanic) speakers, and name etymologies support the notion
of Vandalic
being near related to Gothic. However, the bearers of the Przeworsk
culture (possibly the Lugii) had the custom of cremation, which is
characteristic to Slavic tribes and no Germanic tribes practised,
and the remains of the Przeworsk culture is mainly traced in the
areas which were marshes, where Slavic people know well how to
live, when Romans mentioned the Lugii tribe.

Introduction into the Roman Empire

The Vandals were divided
in two tribal groups, the Silingi and the
Hasdingi.
At the time of the Marcomannic
Wars (166–180) the Silingi lived in an area recorded by
Tacitus
as Magna Germania. In the 2nd century,
the Hasdingi, led by
the kings Raus
and Rapt (or
Rhaus and Raptus) moved south, and first attacked the Romans in
the lower Danube area. In about 271 the Roman Emperor Aurelian was
obliged to protect the middle course of the Danube against them.
They made peace and settled in western Dacia and Pannonia.

According to Jordanes' Getica,
the Hasdingi came into conflict with the Goths around the time
of Constantine
the Great. At the time, the Vandals were living in lands later
inhabited by the Gepids, where they
were surrounded "on the east [by] the Goths, on the west [by] the
Marcomanni, on
the north [by] the Hermanduri and
on the south [by] the Hister (Danube)." The
Vandals were attacked by the Gothic king Geberic, and their
king Visimar was killed.
The Vandals then migrated to Pannonia, where
after Constantine
the Great (about 330) granted them lands on the right bank of
the Danube, they lived for the next sixty years.

In 400 or 401, possibly because
of attacks by the Huns, the Vandals,
under king Godigisel, along
with their allies (the Sarmatian Alans and Germanic
Suebians)
moved westwards into Roman territory. Some of the Silingi joined
them later. Around this time, the Hasdingi had already been
christianized.
During the Emperor Valens's reign
(364–78) the Vandals accepted, much like the Goths earlier,
Arianism,
a belief that was in opposition to that of Nicene
orthodoxy of the Roman Empire. Yet there were also some
scattered orthodox Vandals, among whom was the famous magister
militumStilicho, the
chief minister of the Emperor Honorius.

In Gaul

In 406 the Vandals advanced from Pannonia
travelling west along the Danube without much difficulty, but when
they reached the Rhine, they met resistance from the Franks, who
populated and controlled Romanized regions in northern Gaul. Twenty thousand
Vandals, including Godigisel himself, died in the resulting battle,
but then with the help of the Alans they managed to
defeat the Franks, and on December 31,
406 the Vandals
crossed
the frozen Rhine to invade Gaul, which they devastated
terribly. Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the
Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

The Vandals may have given their name to the
region of Andalusia, which
according to one of several theories of its etymology which would be the
source of Al-Andalus — the
Arabic name of Iberian Peninsula), in the south of present day
Spain, where
they settled before pushing on to North Africa
- though this theory is increasingly disputed (see Al-Andalus:
Older proposals).

The Vandal Kingdom in North Africa

Establishment

The Vandal conquest of North Africa
is considered as a strategic move. The Vandals took North Africa as
a base for raiding the Mediterranean
Sea, much like the Vikings. They
settled mainly in the lands corresponding to modern Tunisia and
northeastern Algeria. It was
under the reign of king Geiseric
(Genseric, Gaiseric), Gunderic's half
brother, when Vandals started building a Vandal fleet, to plunder
the Mediterranean.

In 429, political maneuvering in Rome was to
change the landscape forever. Rome was ruled by the boy emperor
Valentinian
III (who rose to power at the age of 8), and his mother
Galla
Placidia. However, the Roman General Flavius
Aëtius, in vying for power, convinced Galla Placidia that her
General Boniface was
plotting to kill her and her son to claim the throne for himself.
As proof, he implored her to write him a letter asking him to come
to Rome and she would see that Boniface would refuse. At the same
time Aëtius sent Boniface a letter stating that he should disregard
letters from Rome asking him to return for they were plotting to
kill him. When Boniface saw the letter from Rome, and believed
there was a plot to kill him, he enlisted the help of the Vandal
King Geiseric. He promised the Vandals land in North Africa in
exchange for their help. However, once it was known that the whole
thing was a plot, and Boniface was once again in Rome's favour, it
was too late to turn back the Vandal invasion.

Geiseric crossed the Strait
of Gibraltar with the entire tribe of 80,000 and moved east,
pillaging and looting as they drove more and more refugees toward
the walled city of Hippo
Regius. Geiseric realized that they wouldn't be able to take
the city in a direct assault, so began a months long siege on the
walls of Hippo Regius. Inside Saint
Augustine and his priests prayed for relief from the Arian
invaders, knowing full well that the fall of the city would spell
conversion or death for many Christians. On 28 August 430, three
months into the siege, St. Augustine died, perhaps from hunger or stress, as the
wheat fields outside the city lay dormant and unharvested. After 14
months, hunger and the inevitable diseases
were ravaging both the city inhabitants and the Vandals outside the
city walls.

Peace was made between the Romans, who in
435 granted
them some territory in Northern Africa, but it was broken by
Geiseric, who in 439 took Carthage and made
it his capital. The Vandals took and plundered the city without a
fight, entering the city while most of the inhabitants were
attending the races at the hippodrome. Geiseric then built the
Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans into a powerful state with the
capital at Saldae; he conquered
Sicily,
Sardinia,
Corsica and
the Balearic
Islands.

Sack of Rome

During the next thirty-five years, with a
large fleet, Geiseric looted the coasts of the Eastern and Western
Empires. After Attila the
Hun's death, however, the Romans could afford to turn their
attention back to the Vandals, who were in control of some of the
richest lands of their former empire.

In an effort to bring the Vandals into the fold
of the Empire, Valentinian
III offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Geiseric's son.
Before this "treaty" could be carried out, however, politics again
played a crucial part in the blunders of Rome. Petronius
Maximus, the usurper, killed Valentinian
III in an effort to control the Empire. Diplomacy between the
two factions broke down, and in 455 with a letter from
the Empress Licinia
Eudoxia, begging Geiseric's son to rescue her, the Vandals took
Rome, along
with the Empress Licinia
Eudoxia and her daughters Eudocia
and Placidia.

The chronicler Prosper
of Aquitaine offers the only fifth-century report that on
2 June455, Pope
Leo
the Great received Geiseric and implored him to abstain from
murder and destruction by
fire, and to be satisfied with pillage. Whether the pope's
influence saved Rome is, however, questioned. The Vandals departed
with countless valuables, including the spoils of the Temple
in Jerusalem booty brought to Rome by Titus.

Consolidation

In 468 the Vandals
destroyed an enormous East
Roman fleet sent against them. Following up the attack, the
Vandals tried to invade the Peloponnese but
were driven back by the Maniots at
Kenipolis with heavy losses. In retaliation, the Vandals took 500
hostages at Zakynthos, hacked
them to pieces and threw the pieces overboard on the way to
Carthage. Nevertheless, after Geiseric was able to conclude a
"perpetual peace" with Constantinople in 476, relations between the
two states assumed a veneer of normality.

Domestic religious tensions

Differences between the
Arian
Vandals and their Trinitarian
subjects (including both Catholics and Donatists) was a
constant source of tension in their African state. Catholic bishops
were exiled or killed by Geiseric and laymen were excluded from
office and frequently suffered confiscation of their property. He
protected his Catholic subjects when his relations with Rome and
Constantinople were friendly, as during the years 454–57, when the
Catholic community at Carthage, being without a head, elected
Deogratias bishop. The same was also the case during the years
476–477 when Bishop Victor of Cartenna sent him,
during a period of peace, a sharp refutation of Arianism and
suffered no punishment. Generally most Vandal kings, except
Hilderic,
persecuted Trinatarian Christians to a greater or lesser extent,
banning conversion for Vandals, exiling bishops and generally
making life difficult for Trinitarians.

Decline

Geiseric, one of the most powerful personalities of
the "era of the Migrations" died at a great age on 25 January 477.
According to the law of succession which he had promulgated, the
oldest male member of the royal house was to succeed. Thus he was
succeeded by his son Huneric (477–484),
who at first tolerated Catholics, owing to his fear of
Constantinople, but after 482 began to persecute Manichaeans and
Catholics in the most terrible manner.

Gunthamund
(484 – 496), his cousin and
successor, sought internal peace with the Catholics and ceased
persecution once more. Externally, the Vandal power had been
declining since Geiseric's death, and Gunthamund lost large parts
of Sicily to the Ostrogoths and
had to withstand increasing pressure from the autochthonousMoors.

While Thrasamund
(496–523), owing to his religious fanaticism, was hostile to
Catholics, he contented himself with bloodless persecutions.

The turbulent end

Hilderic (523 – 530) was the Vandal
king most tolerant towards the Catholic church. He granted it
religious freedom; consequently Catholic synods were once more held
in North Africa. However, he had little interest in war, and left
it to a family member, Hoamer. When Hoamer
suffered a defeat against the Moors, the Arian faction
within the royal family led a revolt, raising the banner of
national Arianism, and his cousin Gelimer (530 – 533) became king.
Hilderic, Hoamer and their relatives were thrown into prison.
Hilderic was deposed and murdered in 533.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian I
reacted to this by declaring war on the Vandals. The armies of the
Eastern Empire were commanded by Belisarius, who,
having heard that the greatest part of the Vandal fleet was
fighting an uprising in Sardinia, decided to act quickly, and
landed on Tunisian soil, then marched on to Carthage. In the late
summer of 533,
King Gelimer met Belisarius ten miles (16 km) south of Carthage at
the Battle
of Ad Decimum; the Vandals were winning the battle until
Gelimer's brother Ammatas and nephew Gibamund fell in battle.
Gelimer then lost heart and fled. Belisarius quickly took Carthage
while the surviving Vandals fought on.

On December 15,
533, Gelimer
and Belisarius clashed again at Tricamarum,
some from Carthage. Again, the Vandals fought well but broke, this
time when Gelimer's brother Tzazo fell in battle.
Belisarius quickly advanced to Hippo,
second city of the Vandal Kingdom, and in 534 Gelimer surrendered
to the Roman conqueror, ending the Kingdom of the Vandals.

North Africa became a Roman province, from which
the Vandals were expelled. The surviving
Vandal men were enslaved
or joined into the imperial service, while the captured Vandal
women married Byzantine soldiers. Choicest Vandal warriors were formed into five
cavalry regiments, known as Vandali Iustiniani, and stationed on
the Persian
frontier. Some entered the private service of Belisarius. Gelimer
was honourably treated and received large estates in Galatia. He was
also offered the rank of a patrician but had to refuse it because
he was not willing to change his Arian faith.

Vandalic language

Vandals in present day etymology

From c. 1540, the Swedishking had been styled, Suecorum,
Gothorum et Vandalorum Rex: King of the Swedes, the Goths and the
Vandals. The present king, Carl XVI
Gustaf dropped the title in 1973 and now styles
himself simply as King of
Sweden.

References to the Vandals

The verb vandalize is first
recorded in 1800. The term "vandalism" has come to mean
senseless destruction as a result of the Vandals' sack of Rome
under King Geiseric in 455.
Historians agree that the Vandals were no more destructive than
other invaders of ancient times. John Dryden
writes: Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude Northern race, Did all the
matchless Monuments deface (1694). The word "goth" has gained
architectural and other associations since Dryden's time, but
"vandal" has not. During the Enlightenment,
Rome was idealized, and the Goths and Vandals
were disparaged.

"Vandalism" is from the French vandalisme, which originated
during the French
revolution. On August 31, 1794, there was an explosion of the
powder mill of Grenelle in Paris. The Abbot Grégoire denounces
vandalism (it is the first time that this term is employed).

It has been speculated that the Arabic term for Muslim Spain
Al
Andalus is possibly derived from the berber pronunciation of
Vandal: "Ouandal".

Steve Martin
starred in a sketch for Saturday
Night Live on 10/13/1979 in which he portrayed a Roman Centurion tasked
with eliminating a Vandal tribe. The sketch focused around a pun on
the term 'vandal' and its present day usage.